The Trip Planner is a tool to customize your Egypt vacation and share your route.

Getting Started

To add attractions to the trip planner click the "add" button to include an attraction in your itinerary. You can add as many as you want and remove them while you browse.

Organize

Once you've added several attractions, you can customize your itinerary by clicking on the "organize" button in the Trip Planner sidebar.The Trip Planner automatically opens and organises all the attractions based on the cities they are located in and shows the distance between two or more cities.Click on the city tabs to see your city route. Attractions located in the city are automatically arranged and displayed on the map based on the shortest distance between attractions.

Customize

Choose a city to see the attractions located in it.

Attractions can be dragged to rearrange the order in which they appear within the same day.

You can edit attractions by clicking on the edit button. Editing allows you to move the attraction to another day and change the duration of your stay.

You can also add new attractions at the bottom of the Trip Planner city page. New attractions are automatically arranged based on the shortest route on a new day.

Sharing & Claiming

You can share routes by clicking on any of the social media networks.
Any shared route can be customized by copying the route and editing it after logging in through your Facebook or ETA account.

News

Qasr Al Agouz temple in Luxor to open next week

Qasr Al Agouz temple in Luxor to open next week

Luxor

Dec062012

On Luxor’s west bank, in front of Habu Temple stands the small Ptolemaic chapel temple of Qasr Al Agouz -- now awaiting visitors. After seven years of being off Luxor’s tourist map for restoration, Qasr Al Agouz Temple is to be officially inaugurated next week.

Although it encapsulates a very important period in Egyptian history, the temple is virtually unknown to visitors.

It dates back to the reign of King Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and is composed of three oblong rooms, including an offering room and a sanctuary. The temple is dedicated to the god Ibis-Thoth who is represented with a human body and the head of an ibis. It is sometimes depicted wearing the lunar disc with the two phases of a full moon and crescent, sometimes also with a crown.

Two deified mortals of the Late Period showing Imhotep's role as healer and holy Amenhotep-son-of-Hapu are also represented on the walls. The Ptolemaic dynastic cult is well represented, including the ancestors of Ptolemy (with no mention of the first Ptolemy son of Lagus, who was a commoner) and their queens. Scenes depicting Thoth with other gods and goddesses are also shown.

“Although the temple is architecturally almost intact, its decorations have suffered a high rate of humidity and erosion,” Mohamed Beabesh, inspector chief of antiquities of Luxor’s west bank, told Ahram Online. He explained that scenes of Qasr Al Agouz are painted, not carved, which is very rare in Ptolemaic monuments and reflects the incompleteness of the building, as evidenced by the lack of decoration on the external walls which are not decorated.

The temple was subjected to an epigraphic survey by Dominique Mallet in 1909 from the French archaeological institute (IFAO). The Marc Bloch Institute of Egyptology of the University of Strasburg, solicited by the Supreme Council of the Antiques of Egypt, in collaboration with the IFAO, have carried out comprehensive restoration work since 2002.

The temple and its paintings were subjected to studies and research and in 2005 concrete restoration started.

Beabesh said that cracks spread over the walls have been repaired, the paintings consolidated, the floor covered with bubbles to absorb subterranean water and a new lighting system installed in order to make the temple accessible at night.